BIOGRAPHIES

The following biographies are extracted from:
Source: 
The County of Ross: a history of Ross County, Ohio
By Henry Holcomb Bennett
Published by S. A. Brant, Madison, Wis.,
1902

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DAVID UMSTED, well known as a successful breeder of Shorthorn cattle, and fine hogs, comes of a family long prominent in the agricultural affairs of Ross county.  His grandfather and namesake was an old Pennsylvania pioneer who settled in Ross county when it was still part of the western wilds.  Before leaving the home state he had married Catharine Norris, who shared with him the hardships of the wilderness and became the mother of his two children, a daughter and son.  The latter was named Bazel, born and bred in Green township, and in early manhood married Julia A. Haynes.  The parents of the latter were George and Rosana (Groves) Haynes, both of Pennsylvania, and the maternal grandparents were Peter and Rosana Groves who came from Holland to America about the year 1700.  Bazel Umsted became very prosperous as a farmer and stock-raiser, operated on a large scale, and in time accumulated about one thousand acres of land.  He lived until 1852, when he was gathered to his father at a ripe old age, his wife surviving until 1891.  Bazel and Julia Umsted reared a family of six children, of whom William and Addison are dead, the others being John, George, David and Norris.  David Umsted was born in Green township, Mar. 30, 1844.  He was brought up on  the farm of his father and received from the latter that thorough training which was to equip him for future usefulness in the same line of business.  In after year, when cultivating his own land, he developed a taste for fine stock of all kinds, with a preference for the noble breed of Shorthorn cattle and the strain of hogs known as Duroc Jerseys.  These he has raised with such success as to be ranked among the well known breeders of fancy stock, of which he has become an excellent judge.  Aside from this feature, however, he carried on general farming in all its branches and is up-to-date in methods and equipments.  December 13, 1871, he was united in marriage to Mary E. daughter of David Goodman who is mentioned elsewhere in this work.  They have four children, all of whom have been given excellent educations by their affectionate father with especial view to qualifying  each one for his or her chosen calling.  Carrie E., after going through the high school, attended the National normal at Lebanon, where she received a thorough training in the teachers' department and was graduated with honor.  Edward B., whose chosen occupation was that of farming, went through the entire common school course and finished at the excellent high school in Kingston.  David C., after finishing in the high school, attended the Spencerian business college at Cleveland, where he was graduated in 1896, and holds a responsible position as bookkeeper and city salesman in a mercantile house at Louisville, Ky.  John A., after completing his studies at the Kingston high school, took a course at Wilmington college, a popular institution of learning in Clinton county.  The family are members of the Methodist Episcopal church. Source:  The County of Ross: a history of Ross County, Ohio by Henry Holcomb Bennett - Published by S. A. Brant, Madison, Wis., 1902 - Page 714

JOHN MARSHALL VANMETER, president of the Savings bank at Chillicothe, has been long and conspicuously identified with the financial and business interests of Ross county.  His father, John I. Vanmeter, who became a man of great distinction, was born in Hardy county, Va., in 1798.  He was educated at Princeton university, New Jersey, and later received a thorough legal training in the law school of Judge Gould at Litchfield, Conn.  Without delay he entered upon the practice of his profession at Moorefield, county seat of Hardy, and soon rose to prominence both in law and politics.  He had been in business but a short time before he was elected to represent Hardy county in the Virginia legislature.  Soon thereafter he determined to try his fortunes in the west and in 1826 came to Ohio, where he located on a farm in Pike county.  It was not long, however, until he was again drawn into olitics, for which he had both taste and talent and found hismelf himself a member of the lower house of the Ohio legislature.  During the exciting campaign of 1840, ever memorable in the history of the old Whig party of which Mr. Vanmeter was an ardent and conspicuous adherent, he became a candidate for the Ohio state senate and was triumphantly elected.  Two years later he received the nomination of his party for Congress and after one of the strenuous struggles characteristic of that political period he was sent to Washington as one of the leaders of the Whig forces.  His course was approved and endorsed by renomination in 12844, but the Democrats having control of the Ohio legislature had so "gerrymandered" the state as to relegate Mr. Vanmeter to a district with a hostile majority.  However, he accepted his party's trust and made a strong race against no less a personage than the famous Allen G. Thurman, but the Democratic preponderance was too great and he was defeated.  It was during Mr. Vanmeter's term in Congress that the question came up of making an appropriation to test the practicability of the electric telegraph.  Much to his credit he supported the small appropriation asked for by the struggling inventor while others, including some of the greatest men in Congress, were sneering at poor Morse and ridiculing his "effort to talk to the moon over a wire," as it was facetiously pronounced.  After his location in Pike county, Mr. Vanmeter followed farming until 1855, when he removed to Chillicothe and resided in retirement until his death in1875.  In 1826 he married Mary, daughter of Joseph and Mary (Williams) Harness, who were among the earliest settlers of Ross county, having come there prior to 1800 from Hardy county, Va.  Mrs. Vanmeter died in1854, leaving seven children: Elizabeth H., Joseph H., Isaac, John M., Eliza and Sally (twins) and Mary.  They are all dead excepting Mary and the subject of this sketch, both of whom live in Chillicothe.  John M. Vanmeter was born in Pike county, Ohio, in September, 1836; had the benefits of an unusually thorough and liberal education, derived from attendance at the noble University of Virginia and the well known Monongahela college at Jefferson, Pa., graduating from the latter institution in the class of 1854.  Subsequently he entered the law school at Harvard, took the full legal course in that famous institution and received his degree of bachelor of law in 1857.  In that same year he engaged in practice at Chillicothe and devoted himself almost exclusively to his profession until 1881, when he retired to attend to his accumulating interests in farming and finance.  In 1876 Mr. Vanmeter was appointed common pleas judge to fill a vacancy caused by the death of Judge Mitchell grey, and served a short term.   He is connected with both the Central National and Savings banks of Chillicothe, having been one of the directors of the former and president of the latter since the organization of each.  In January, 1861, he was married to Eliza Irwin, daughter of Dr. Peleg and Eliza (Waters) Sisson.  Mrs. Vanmeter died in 1865, leaving three children: John I., now practicing attorney in Chillicothe.  Eliza Irwin and Marshall, the latter dying in early manhood.  In 1872 Mr. Vanmeter married Susan T., daughter of William Streit and Sally (Vanmeter) Cunningham, of Hardy county, W. Va.  The second union resulted in the birth of three children: William Streit, Mary Harness and Sally Cunningham.  The eldest died in childhood and Sally C. is now the wife of John Maderia Brown, of Ross county. Source:  The County of Ross: a history of Ross County, Ohio by Henry Holcomb Bennett - Published by S. A. Brant, Madison, Wis., 1902 - Page 715-716

GEORGE A. VAUGHTERS, long and favorably known in the commercial world as a merchant and president of the Citizens National bank of Chillicothe, is one of the representative business men of Ross county.  During his quarter century residence in the city he has been influentially identified with its progress and development, doing his full share in aid of all movements promising an advancement of the public welfare.  Mr. Vaughters was born in Scioto county, Ohio, Sept. 11, 1851.  He had aspiratons at an early period for a thorough education, especially such as would aid a commercial career, and his plans in this direction were satisfactorily carried out.  After such preliminary training as was afforded by the public school system of his native place, he spent three years at that thorough and excellent institution known as the National Normal at Lebanon, O.  In addition to the regular curriculum, Mr. Vaughters took the commercial course in the same college and was graduated in that department with the class of 1874.  He recalls a very dramatic and nationally important event which occurred during his attendance at the Lebanon school.  Clement L. Vallandigham the famous anti-war leader of Ohio, was engaged as counsel in a criminal case then being tried there, and while endeavoring to show how a wound received by one of the parties might have been self-inflicted, his pistol was discharged and mortally wounded himself.  Mr. Vaughters was admitted into the room and became one of the sympathetic spectators of the sufferings which preceded the death of this eminent lawyer and statesman.  His education completed, Mr. Vaughters, while looking around for a business location, was attracted to Chillicothe, where in 187 he obtained employment as bookkeeper for a wholesale grocer named English.  He retained this position for a year and when his employer went to Columbus accompanied him to that city, remaining for some time in charge of the books.  In 1879 Mr. Vaughters returned to Chillicothe and formed a partnership with Michael Kramer in the wholesale grocery business, under the firm name of Vaughters, Kramer & Co., which has been continued with success up to the present time, and in course of time Allen W. Hamill was added to the firm.  In April, 1901, the Citizens National bank of Chillicothe was incorporated, and Mr. Vaughters was elected president.   In addition to his other business interests, Mr. Vaughters is secretary and treasurer of the Chillicothe Electric Light and Power company, and altogether is quite a busy citizen.  He has been three times married, and has two sons, Harry, a farmer in Scioto county, and Donald. Source:  The County of Ross: a history of Ross County, Ohio by Henry Holcomb Bennett - Published by S. A. Brant, Madison, Wis., 1902 - Page 716-717

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